Recent advances in technology have brought fast and relatively inexpensive worldwide communication to average consumers. Individuals can chat, call, text, video chat, or send data, almost instantaneously to other individuals around the world. People are able to communicate and form relationships with an unprecedented amount and variety of other individuals. In turn, they are able to access a wide variety of previously unknown cultures and experiences on a daily basis. With the ubiquitous mobile telephone, an individual can see and hear remote locations and share images, audio, video, and ideas with friends or complete strangers via social media. This technology has allowed individuals to connect to other people and places unimaginable just a short time ago. However, the quality of these connections is lacking and the wide array of superficial experiences (e.g., unrealistic, computer-generated environments) provided by current technology cannot provide deeper, realistic, shared experiences. The allure of these superficial new experiences however, can distract individuals from the pursuit of deeper human interaction.
Modern communication technologies are obtrusive and stand in the way of more meaningful and realistic interactions and experiences. As people become more reliant on and involved in their on-line, “digital” lives, they inevitably become more detached from the real world and real experiences. Current technology limits users to alternatively producing or viewing shared content using tools and interfaces which form barriers between users and detract from a more natural experience. Remote viewers cannot generally control their own experience, and certainly not in real world venues and events in a real-time, organic manner. They must instead rely on other individuals to produce and share content from a venue. Meanwhile, individuals at the physical event, producing shared content, are engrossed in their mobile devices, creating and sharing video, texts, audio, chats, images, social media posts, and other superficial content instead of experiencing the event. In both cases, the viewer and the producer remain separated from meaningful experiences by obtrusive layers of technology. The promise of current communication technology has led more and more people to spend more and more time in their virtual, on-line lives but the limitations of that technology are having a deleterious effect on people's ability to engage in meaningful experiences and interactions with the surrounding world and their peers.
Techniques including 3-dimensional (3D) displays and virtual reality headsets are known and used to create more realistic videos, images and environments. These techniques are limited in application however. Representations of real events and venues still require a producer, controlling the viewpoint at the venue and the viewer or virtual participant cannot control the experience in an organic manner. Virtual computer-generated environments are known and can provide more viewpoint control to the virtual participant. Such environments are seen in massively multi-player online worlds and games and allow a user to experience a 3D virtual reality and interact with other users in the virtual space. These experiences are, however, limited to computer generated worlds and objects and cannot allow users to remotely experience real-world places and events, in real time.
The use of multiple cameras, simultaneously capturing an object from multiple angles is also known and can be used to provide a viewer with the ability to view images of the object, in the single captured instance, from multiple viewpoints of their choosing. This technique has been used in movies and sporting events to provide a viewer with the sensation of flying around an object such as a football player in the act of making a catch. Virtual viewpoints are extrapolated from the image information captured at each camera and are used to smooth the transitions between images and allow a user to view the scene from an angle at which there is no camera. This technique requires post production work and can only be executed with multiple expensive, fixed position cameras set up at optimal viewpoints and angles. Additionally, this technique cannot provide an immersive experience because it cannot be executed in real-time, most often does not allow for end-user control of the viewpoint, and is limited to multiple viewpoints of a single captured moment in time as opposed to live-action video.